Toward a Test of Overall Migration from the Coated Face of a Recycled Paperboard Food Contact Material into Fatty Food Simulants

The main aim of the present work was to evaluate the suitability of recycled paperboard coated on its internal face for use in containers that contact fried foods. Suitability was assessed in terms of overall migration into fatty food simulants and in terms of the residue extracted into n-heptane. Testing of the packaging was carried out following the guidelines laid down by the EU for plastic packaging, and also those established by the FDA for the extractive testing of paper and paperboard for use in food contact. With a view to simplifying the test procedures, the results of the official tests were compared with those obtained using alternative fatty food simulants under comparable sets of test conditions. The overall migration test using olive oil as the fatty food simulant was an adaptation of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) test developed for plastic materials. Two methods for determination of the amount of olive oil absorbed by the paperboard during the tests were compared: a gravimetric method and a modification of the CEN gas chromatographic method. Finally, the packaging materials were extracted with solvents of several different polarities in order to develop a test allowing preliminary identification of major potential migrating components in paperboard contributing to EU overall migration levels and FDA extractive levels. Keywords: Food safety; recycled paperboard coated for food contact; EU overall migration tests; FDA extractive tests; fatty food contact